The Sending of the Twelve

Mark 6:7-12 (NASB)

7 And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits; 8 and He instructed them that they were to take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belt— 9 but to wear sandals; and He added, “Do not wear two tunics.” 10 And He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town. 11 Any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 And they went out and preached that people are to repent. 13 And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

So much of the four gospels are centered on only one week: the week leading up to the crucifixion. It makes sense that is the focus for the gospel writers, for that event is the foundation of our faith. Yet, because of that, as we piece together the timeline of the approximate 3 1/2 years of Jesus’ public ministry, it can be a little confusing to keep the passage of time straight. This year, my family and I are reading through the Bible in a year in a chronological Bible. It has been so interesting to read through the Bible this way. It helps put events into a clear timeline. This sending of the 12 is a good example of something that might get lost in our mental timelines.

Jesus sent out the disciples in groups of two, pretty early in His public ministry. I tend to think of the disciples as sticking close to Jesus during these years and when I think of them going out and preaching the good news without Jesus with them, I think of that happening after His death and resurrection. But Jesus sent them out before all of that happened. He sent them out to preach repentance, much like John the Baptist preached. It makes me wonder about how much the disciples even understood about Jesus at that point. We know they had seen Him perform some pretty amazing miracles. The calming of the storm had happened. Yet, Lazarus had not been raised from the dead, nor even the multiplying of the loaves and fish. Keeping the timeline in mind, this tells me three things:

· we don’t need to be very knowledgeable before we obey God

· when we evangelize people, we should start with preaching repentance

· we can trust God to provide for our needs

Those three ideas seem to run counter-culture to a lot of messaging I hear coming out of evangelicalism today. If someone has a calling from God to go into ministry, if they are a part of any of the major denominations, the first hurdle that person has to conquer is going to school and getting a degree. I’m not saying that I’m against education, not at all. I think we should study scripture and learn everything we can about what God has told us in His word. But I don’t think we need to know all that much before we respond to what God has told us to do. In 1 Peter 3:15 we are told: “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.” To evangelize someone, all we really need to be able to do is give an account, a reason, or story of why we are following Jesus. And we don’t even need to know what we will say ahead of time, for just as we are told in Luke 12:11-12, “Now when they bring you before the synagogues and the officials and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” we can trust the Spirit to tell us what to say when we witness to someone. This commission by Jesus, when He sent the disciples out, shows us that there is no hurdle we have to overcome first. We can start immediately evangelizing others after we ourselves become a Christian. We don’t need to wait to share the goods news until we know Scripture better or know more theology. All that we need to begin, is what I mentioned last week: we need the Holy Spirit to speak to us and direct our steps and words so we can be effective evangelists for Him.

In my life, the most enthusiasm and boldness I had to tell others about Jesus was in the first few years after I became a Christian. I don’t think my experience is unique to me. Most people, when they first get saved, seem to have a natural zeal and fire to share the good news with others. I was on fire for the Lord, as the saying goes. I would witness to street people, the homeless, people at the mall. It didn’t matter to me if I knew the finer points of theology, church history or even all that much about scripture. All I needed to know in order to tell others about Jesus, I had personally experienced and so I simply told my story to anybody who would listen, and shared Jesus’ message of hope. The Lord led me to Bible College and then it seemed like slowly my mindset changed. While I still witnessed to people, I came to feel like “real ministry” would begin once I graduated and had a position at a church. Over time, I lost that first zeal I had for sharing the good news with anyone and everyone. That is something I would like to get back.

The second thing the sending of the twelve tells me is that when we evangelize people, we should start with preaching repentance. I don’t hear a lot of sermons about repentance. Rather, it’s been my experience that a lot of Christians get uncomfortable when the topic of repentance comes up. It doesn’t seem nice or seeker-sensitive to call people to repent. Yet, that is what Jesus told the disciples to preach, and it is also how John the Baptist preached. Matthew 3:1-2 says, “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Of all the things to have John tell people before Jesus started His public ministry, why would God have John the Baptist preach that message? Why didn’t John say, “The Messiah is here, follow Him.” Or, “King Jesus is at hand, worship Him.” Do you think he started by saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” because first, the people needed to realize that they needed a Savior?

Jesus would not overthrow the Roman government and become an earthly king or Caesar. He wasn’t even going to become the High Priest of the Jews. He was going to die on the cross. Why? God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus died on the cross, taking our place, becoming our savior. He took our punishment so we can be declared righteous and forgiven. This path to the cross that Jesus was going to take it was very different from what the Jewish people were expecting the Messiah to do. Even though Isaiah 53:5 foretold it by saying, “But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” It was not what the people were expecting. I think they thought their system of offering sacrifices occasionally at the temple was sufficient. A lot of the Jewish leaders thought they were righteous already. If we read any of Jesus’ words to the religious leaders, we quickly learn that Jesus thought otherwise about them. He says to them in Matthew 23:27, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” That is why Jesus also echoes John the Baptist’s message of repentance. We also see in Matthew 4:17 that, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Jesus, Himself, was calling people to repent. We should do the same.

Interestingly, Matthew 10 records this sending of the twelve disciples, and he does not specifically mention that they are to preach repentance, but he does record that Jesus said they are to say, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” I think this is only the second half of the message. Because Mark states that Jesus told the disciples to preach “that people are to repent” it is logical that Matthew simply didn’t include the word repent when he quoted Jesus this time. Especially since the rest of the phrase is verbatim to what Matthew recorded John the Baptist and Jesus saying earlier.

Let’s look closer at how Matthew 10 records this event, for we see Jesus had even more specific directions to give to the disciples. And this time, let’s notice that Jesus is setting them up to learn that they can trust God to provide what they need.

Matthew 10:5-15

These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go on a road to Gentiles, and do not enter a city of Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 9 Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10 or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is deserving of his support. 11 And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city. 12 As you enter the house, give it your greeting. 13 If the house is worthy, see that your blessing of peace comes upon it. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. 14 And whoever does not receive you nor listen to your words, as you leave that house or city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than for that city.

Jesus tells the disciples that they are going to go out and preach, but they don’t need to pack anything. They don’t take money or extra clothing. That means they are going to have to trust God to provide everything they might need. I couldn’t find anywhere in scripture how long they were gone for, but it doesn’t seem like they were gone a long time. For just a few verses later in Mark 6:30-31 (ESV) we read, “The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.”

So maybe it was a couple of weeks they were gone. I don’t think it was longer than a month or two at most. I think we can say that it might have been the start of short-term mission trips! Could you imagine going on a short-term mission trip and not taking money or extra clothing? I’ve been on a few, and I definitely packed a lot of “necessities” for the trips. Yet Jesus was very specific. Since we don’t hear otherwise, I think we can assume that the trips were successful and nobody died from lack of necessities. I wonder if the experience was even more insightful to the disciples than it was to anybody they preached to. Often, short-term mission trips end up benefiting the people who went even more so than the people the short-term mission team ministers to. It can be an amazing opportunity to witness the hand of God moving, changing the lives of the people you preach to. And can you imagine, if on the mission trip, you prayed for people and they got physically healed and delivered from demons right in front of your eyes? Can you imagine praying for someone to come back to life? That is what the disciples did! I think that was life changing to the disciples as well! They learned that the power of God is real and that He can be trusted to provide for all our needs; physical, spiritual, and practical.

They were to go to a town, find “worthy” people, meaning someone who was open to their message, and stay with them. Then preach, saying basically, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and then prove those words with a demonstration of God’s power through miracles of healing. All the while, relying on God to lead them and provide for them. God proved Himself to be real and when the disciples returned, they knew that they could trust Him to provide for them.

Of the three of these points, surely this one is being heard within Christianity today. We are being told that we can trust God to provide for our needs, aren’t we? I’m not so sure. The leaders who talk the most about God being able to provide for us, they tend to get labeled as “prosperity” teachers. They tend to be slandered and mocked. I just read an internet post that said prosperity gospel preachers are as “evil and devastating as progressive Christianity.” While there are some charlatans preaching prosperity, we should not be afraid to still speak the truth that God is a God of provision. He is Jehovah Jira, God our provider. We can trust Him to provide what we need.

Did you notice another thing Jesus’ instructions stated, “Do not go on a road to Gentiles, and do not enter a city of Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”? If you remember from last week, Simeon prophesied Jesus would be a light to the Gentiles, but here, Jesus is saying do not preach to the Gentiles. Why not? N.T. Wright, in his book Matthew for Everyone, explains, “Israel itself must hear the message, must be given a chance to repent before it’s too late. So far, the Gentiles who have appeared have come at their own initiative; Jesus has not sought them out, and won’t do during his public ministry. If he and his followers had started taking their message to the Gentile world at this stage, no self-respecting Jew would have paid them any more attention. It would have confirmed his enemies’ taunts: he was in league with the devil” (p. 112)

So at that time Jesus didn’t want them to witness to the Gentiles, but we know that restriction was only temporary, for when Jesus sends the disciples out after His resurrection, He does not limit who they are to preach to. He sends them to the whole world. Matthew 28:18-20 records this important commission: And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Now they were to go to everyone, Jew and Gentile. And not just to their surrounding towns, but into all the world. He doesn’t say expressly that they are to preach repentance, but isn’t that what making disciples is all about? In order for someone to become a follower of Jesus, they must start with repentance.

That is why we should not be afraid to preach repentance. Like the disciples, we should be ready to speak to people about our Savior who has saved us by forgiving us and redeeming us. I had quoted part of 1 Peter 3:15 earlier, but look at what the rest of what 1 Peter 3:15-16 says: “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who disparage your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”

Did you catch how we are to give an account or tell others about Jesus? We are to tell the message with gentleness and respect. If we went through our day full of gentleness and respect for everyone we come in contact with, it will make us noticeable, because frankly, gentleness and kindness are unfortunately becoming rare in our society. People tend to be gruff or rude to others in public. Just by modeling those two characteristics, we will stand out.

This, of course, applies to how we preach repentance. If we are trying to present the gospel with gentleness and respect, that does not mean that we have to shy away from preaching repentance. It simply means we are to preach repentance only with gentleness and respect. Unfortunately, I think why the evangelical church as a whole has shied away from preaching repentance is because some Christians have preached repentance with hate and anger and so as to distance themselves from these hurtful Christians, they avoid talking about repentance all together. That is not the solution.

Throughout Jesus’ short years of public ministry, He loved people, but He also preached repentance. The first words that the gospel of Mark records Jesus as saying is Mark 1:14-15 which says, “Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’”

When Jesus described His purpose in coming to earth, He said as recorded in Luke 5:31-32, “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.’” He came to earth to call sinners to repentance so they could be forgiven and healed. We can’t forget what repentance is. It is a changing of the mind, a turning away. When we repent, it is very different from regret. It is change. And when we repent of our sin and ask Jesus to forgive us and help us, He offers us forgiveness and new life. Repentance is not condemnation. Repentance is freedom. So when we preach repentance, we are offering people a chance to be freed from their sin through faith in the merciful blood of Christ. Why would we be ashamed to preach that message? It is the message of freedom and eternal life. If we don’t preach repentance, we are not preaching a complete Gospel, for no one can come to Christ apart from repentance. That is where we all must begin. Then we find forgiveness, healing and freedom. Then we find that not only can God provide salvation for us, but He can provide all that we need in this life. All we have to do is follow Him.

Pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for always providing for all our needs. Thank You first, for providing a way of salvation. Thank You for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sin. Thank You for filling us with Your Holy Spirit who helps us follow You. We love You and trust You to provide for us. Thank You for loving us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.